Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Large dams and sustainable development do not go together; far from it. Following their rapporteur Nirj Deva (ECR, United Kingdom), the MEPs stressed in Strasbourg on 27 September that dams which radically alter the watercourses and the use of natural resources have a major impact on human communities, ecosystems and biodiversity of wet and river areas. The resolution on dam infrastructures in developing countries adopted by the Parliament subscribes to the view of the World Commission on Dams, which is that large dams have not only failed to achieve the anticipated results for the production of electricity, provision of water and flood defence, but have also had considerable social and environmental consequences.
The Parliament takes the view that it is vital to adopt a flood prevention strategy in regions in which the presence of unstable glacial lakes constitutes a serious flood risk. It deplores the total absence of flood prevention measures in many of the LDCs (least-developed countries), but warns against the use of large dams to prevent flood damage, particularly as climate change and episodes of extreme precipitation could increase the intensity and frequency of flash floods, thus threatening the safety of dams.
The Parliament also believes that all EU funding should help to promote sustainable development and the reinforcement of food security, in line with the millennium development goals. It stresses that it is not enough to build and reinforce dams in the LDCs to protect vulnerable areas, and calls for “concerted efforts to be agreed upon to tackle the problem at its root, rather than just the symptoms, thus avoiding wasting the European taxpayers' money”. It calls upon the EU to take - and promote on a large scale - measures to reduce emissions of black carbon. Strongly of the opinion that small hydroelectric dams are more sustainable and more economically viable than large hydroelectric dams, the Parliament is extremely concerned by the fact that the World Bank has pledged more than US$100 billion for the construction of mainly large hydroelectric projects focusing on export, with the corollary effect of displacing between 40 and 80 million people, the loss of subsistence resources, damaged ecosystems and the creation of heavy debt burdens for the developing countries. The Parliament calls on the EU to carry out “soft-path” policies to fight flooding (improved forecasting, protection of buildings, development of storage capacities in major riverbed areas and setting in place diversion systems). (AN/transl.fl).